Description of the attraction
Jaffa, a tourist-favorite area in southern Tel Aviv, was once an independent city - one of the oldest in the world.
The place is indeed very ancient: in the 15th century BC, Pharaoh Thutmose III, who captured it, considered the event worthy of written glorification. Three centuries before the siege of Troy, the Egyptians were helped by the same military cunning: they sent camels laden with gifts to the townspeople, but armed soldiers sat in baskets.
Jaffa is mentioned four times in the Old Testament - for example, Lebanese cedars were brought in rafts to this port to build the Temple of Solomon. From here the prophet Jonah began his journey. Jaffa also appears in the New Testament: here the Apostle Peter resurrected his disciple Tabitha. In the Hellenistic era, the troops of Alexander the Great stood in the city, in the Jewish War, the Romans burned Jaffa to the ground.
In 636, Jaffa was captured by the Arabs, and the revival of the port began. Richard the Lionheart and Saladin fought for him. In the XIV century, the Muslims again destroyed the city for fear of new crusades. Even at the end of the 16th century, Jaffa was a heap of ruins. The Ottoman Turks began to rebuild it in the 17th century: they restored Christian churches and inns on the way to Jerusalem and Galilee. In 1799, Napoleon invaded the Holy Land - he captured Jaffa, his troops staged a terrible massacre here, then a plague struck the city. Life returned here only years later.
At the beginning of the 20th century, several dozen families bought land in the dunes north of the old port: here they decided to build the first Jewish city in Palestine. This is how modern Tel Aviv appeared, of which ancient Jaffa later became part.
In the nineties of the last century, monuments were restored here, many art galleries, theaters, souvenir shops, restaurants, pedestrian streets appeared. Jaffa has become a romantic seaside destination. The Baroque Church of St. Peter, built by the Franciscans at the end of the 19th century on the foundations of a fortress from the times of the Crusaders, rises on Kedumim Square. The house standing "by the sea" stands out with its lighthouse among the old buildings, which belonged, as the guides assure, to Simon the tanner mentioned in the Acts of the Holy Apostles - a friend of the Apostle Peter. The ancient mosque Al-Bahr is depicted on the canvas of the painter Lebrun (1675), it is the oldest functioning mosque in the city. A beautiful clock tower rises on the Clock Square, built in 1906 in honor of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, who was later overthrown by the Young Turkish revolution.
Most of the archaeological finds in Tel Aviv are from Jaffa Hill. An ancient Egyptian gate, about three and a half thousand years old, has been restored here. The Jaffa Museum is housed in an 18th century building built on top of the ruins of a Crusader fortress.
The Farkash Private Gallery has the world's largest collection of Israel's historical posters. At the city's flea market, you can find both antiques and inexpensive pure cotton clothing. The second market, the port market, is rich in seafood and oysters. Tel Avivs consider the local hummus to be the best in Israel.
